המועדפים של tothemax

Observed two Spea hammondii pairs in amplexus within small pools in Wonder Valley, Ca. One male Pseudacris regilla was in amplexus with female Spea hammondii. Night time visual encounter survey only.

Two individuals in what I presume was a failed predation event. Adult and juvenile locked together by the jaw. Lower jaw was locked together by the teeth. I unhooked them, gave water, and after a short time the adult was gone while the juvenile stuck around in a nearby bush.

I presume the adult tried predating upon the juvie, and the juvie got luck, grabbed onto the adults jaw, and hung on till they were exhausted.

Observation by MTRP Patrol Volunteers, George Varga, Marty Fink, Matt Franco. "The elapsed time between the first and last photo is 13 minutes. The rate at which this snake came out of the expanding burrow with mouth-fulls of dirt was amazing.
The snake literally was spitting a mouthful** of soil out. It kept going down and back up with mouth-fulls of dirt about every three, four seconds. When the pile got big
enough, it would use its body in a sinuous fashion to push the soil out of its way."
**In fact the snake retrieved "neckfuls" of dirt.
Short video of event: https://youtu.be/ZONMSUBvTeM

Observed a coast night snake (Hypsigiena ochrorhynchus) consuming a side-blotched lizard (Uta stansburiana) on the Grotto trail within the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area on April 13. I first noticed the side-blotched lizard at 3:45 pm with its head in a burrow on the side of the trail, but when I tried to pick it up it became apparent something was holding on to its head. I stayed and watched as the night snake slowly emerged form the burrow to consume its prey over the course of 45 minutes. Once finished the night snake slithered off the trail into some low shrub cover. It was no more than 12 inches long.

Saw this Mojave Green on my afternoon/sunset walk. Saw it in my side view as I was walking. It was already curled up like that. I sprinkled some water towards it and that’s when it got up and moved. Never rattled. I continued on my way after that. High 80’s/low 90’s at 7:52pm and the sun was just setting. My second Mojave Green I’ve ever seen! There were several holes in the ground nearby that is where it probably emerged from earlier in the evening.

Wow, I just parked on the side of the road and went for a walk for about an hour. The vegetation is SO DRY out here. This hole caught my attention, so I wandered over to it. And this baby rattlesnake was already curled up in this position, in this exact spot. I can’t believe I saw anything living out here due to the dryness. Soooo cool!!!!! And I have never seen a Mojave Rattlesnake before. If this is a Mojave, it’s my first one! So cool whatever it is either way :D

Lyre being eaten by a striped racer. I will create a separate observation for the striped racer, located here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/112218400 . Photo & observation by Bruce Pavalon

My friend saw a tortoise in this area over summer (June, July or August, I forget) the day after a thunderstorm, when the tortoise was out and cruising around. So this could be the same one. Today I just finished a hike and saw some large holes over by this hilly section so I went over to look in all of the holes. The first three I didn’t see anything, so I was expecting to keep seeing nothing and I look in this burrow (no flashlight needed) and I see this tortoise!!!!!! I was shocked!!! It was so cute. In the first photos it was still kinda in the burrow and then it took a couple steps out and sat there the rest of the time. Gosh I just feel so lucky. They are my favorite animal besides bighorn sheep. The temperature was 78 when I started hiking around 3pm and then when I saw the tortoise at 5:42pm, I was back to my car around 6pm and it was 72 degrees out. I’m so happy to have seen it! Update on 10/30/21 - I told my friends about the tortoise and they found it’s burrow today (10/30/21) and the tortoise!